Freak Valley Festival

 

Freak Valley Festival

There and back again…

Between a few hills somewhere in a rural part of Germany, there lives a festival. Not a nasty, dirty, wet festival, where too many people are crammed on a piece of asphalt and the waiting lines for food and drink are so immense it deters you from going to the bar, nor an empty field where crickets can be heard between the songs of whatever local band is playing on stage: it was Freak Valley Festival, and that means good people, all of them weird friends and great impressive music…

It had red kites circling the camping area looking for an easy prey among the tents and campervans, a passed-out Freak perhaps still buzzing from last night’s set, but also too tired and too hot to move out of the sun and the birds’ crosshairs. Those spread wings did offer a moment of respite from the blistering sun, that miniscule momentary shadow giving you just another bit of energy to spend during whatever day you found yourself wondering the festival grounds. It had smiling security guards as you passed the entry gates and all sorts of food courts on those first meters towards the stage. A better setup than most festivals and with vendors who looked pleased to help you, meet you and remembered your name the following day. One stage where all the bands played in succession, never go pass their time limit, except the one of course. You know the amazing and wild The Great Machine has to do that. It’s in their DNA. Especially if the crowd is demanding they play there 1 minute thirty seconds long song BITCH. Which always turns into a freak’s paradise. And every set of every day started with the honorable Volker Fröhmer welcoming all his friends in front of the stage. Should we mention all the highlights? Which means we should probably just do a roll call of all the bands. But I was there first and foremost for Besvärjelsen, and they were indeed better than I could have hoped. An amazing set, with a fill-in bass player, that had the crowd going wild, and will live on in my memory forever. And will surely never pass up an opportunity to see them again. Thanks for the show! Same goes for King Buffalo, saw them many times now, but they always get me, almost have me teared up, always has me about to lift off during that end rise of Mammoth. And to have that one followed by Earthless, was indeed out of this earth and heavenly! The few freaks that we not on a different plane of existence after those two sets were surely still having fun on the campsite. And they will have to live with that fact forever… But I sincerely do hope they got their kicks somewhere else. For there were many more bands delivering their excellence.   

Thanks to all the Freaks that came out and the organization who manages to put this wild and beautiful shindig on every year. Thanks to Linda from Scorched Oak for finding us in the crowd again, to Joe Hannes for pushing Tier back into my peripheral vision and to all the quick meets with everyone else. Especially the much too cool Roman and Alberto from Vinnum Sabbathi again, monsieur Damien Regnauld and Xavier Bataillon, the always shining JJ Koczan and to Paloma Heat for running the weirdest and probably the best PR campaign a band can do… And now, we’re back home, trying to make our way again through the less successful version of life. But luckily there will be another Freak Valley Festival next year. ‘Thank goodness!” I exclaim with a smile and a giddy heart full of freak love…